I always thought stirling engins were just for show and had no power at all. There was a bunch of videos on youtube showing them running little dynamos and such, and they looked like they werent even trying tbh, so I may try to make one and disguise it to make it look like a hotbulb engine almost, or just make the last one that I posted above. I just like the look of the thing, lol.

Edit: evidently they have no real power to them at all, thats what everyone was saying on the one forum, but then again, I see stuff like this;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gWyV1meMakso Im not entirely sure how much power it would have tbh.

The way they work is that the slide valve opens up when the piston almost reaches the end of the stroke, exausting any air/gasses, then it stays open until the piston reaches the opposite end, then closes and the hot air that is sucked in, the chamber is water cooled and causes the hot air to cool and shrink rapidly. The cooling air causes a vacuum which pulls the piston back to the other end of the cylinder, then repeating the whole cycle over again. Most that Ive seen has an exaust port on the top of the cylinder which vents the air/gasses so the exaust wasnt blowing back on the flame and blowing the flame away from the inlet port.